It’s time for Canadian income tax rates to match those of the U.S.

In the U.S., the top federal bracket of 37 per cent doesn’t start until US$640,600 for a single filer and US$768,700 for a married couple filing jointly, much higher than in Canada. PHOTO BY NORA CAROL PHOTOGRAPHY/GETTY IMAGES Article content My wife and I have some long-term friends who we get along with swimmingly, but we sometimes disagree, like most friendships. We work through it maturely because we value the history and the relationship. We don’t use disagreements as an excuse to rupture something built over decades. Article content That’s how I feel about Canada and the United States right now. Donald Trump’s approach — the tariffs, the 51st state rhetoric, his claim that the United States doesn’t need anything from us — is genuinely corrosive. Many Canadians’ response — vacuous slogans, boycotting U.S. booze, cancelling trips, refusing U.S. products on principle. It feels like solidarity — is just therapy, not strategy. Article content Article content Article content What that reaction misses is how lopsided the economic relationship is. More than 70 per cent of our merchandise exports go to the U.S. Trade in goods and services makes up roughly two-thirds of our gross domestic product. This isn’t a fight between equals and pretending otherwise doesn’t change the math. Article content Article content Real diversification has been the goal for decades, without ever coming close, for the simplest of reasons: we share a border and a continent with the U.S., not with whoever ends up on top of the global economy 50 years from now. That isn’t changing in any of our lifetimes. Article content If symbolic retaliation isn’t real leverage, what is? Making Canada an attractive place to invest, build a business and take risks with capital is entirely within our control. And one of the biggest levers we’ve refused to pull is changes to our personal tax system. Article content Canada’s top federal bracket — 33 per cent — kicks in at $258,482 of taxable income for 2026. That top bracket and four percentage point tax increase was introduced as one of Justin Trudeau’s first measures after getting elected in the fall of 2015. Article content Article content It was sold as a straightforward revenue grab from the wealthy. Instead, taxable income reported by top-bracket earners fell sharply enough that the change was a net revenue loser once behavioural effects and the resulting drop in provincial revenue were accounted for. Article content Read…